#eyesthebye

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So, I was tagged by via14lol to list 15 things that makes me happy.  That made me sit up.  I normally don't enumerate what brings me joy (which is a shame), so the tag sort of pulled me up short.  Let's see, what makes me happy: 

1.  a hot cup of lightly sweetened tea; right now, mint is my go-to but I'm usually down with Earl Grey.  Tea is the best corrective for a bad day, in my opinion. 

2.  a good kdrama rom-com; this can be a rare animal because so many fall into disarray in the second half, but those few beauties that hold true light up several weeks of my life.  Whatever drudgery the outside world has to offer is always beaten back by a good kdrama rom-com. 

3.  losing myself while writing a poem; it's frustrating and I may mutter and curse every word that won't fit the precise spirit of the line I am currently wrangling, but when it's time to step away, it always feels as if I am leaving my happy place.  Probably because I am. 

4.  a really good poem; it's like a fine-tuned affinity, like someone struck a bell and I can feel the vibrations running through me.  When I find a poem or a poet who can inspire that feeling in me, I want to click my heels. 

5.  finding a new book to love; the book that makes me shirk sleep, that invades my dreams, that demands to be read in every spare minute makes me giddy 

6.  re-reading a book; it's like coming home.  I am a chronic re-reader and break so many books that way because they are so well-worn. 

7.  a successful prayer session; when I hit the sweet spot, I have such clarity and the world is a bit brighter. 

8.  working on a piece of art; I don't do this with enough frequency, but much like writing a poem, the process brings me as much joy as the finished product

9.  re-watching my favorite completed tv shows; just like coming home. 

10.  the movie, Pollyanna (1960); I put a nod to it in my post title and I pretty much halt everything to watch this version.  It makes me happy. 

11.  sitting in a library or a bookstore; that was my adolescence - I'd just plot myself down in a place full of books and lose myself. 

12.  the smell of curry, the sight of roti; I'm partially West Indian, so the first was pretty much standard in my household while the latter was a treat.  I associate it with home, with warmth and boisterousness and I just relax. 

13.  the memory of buying sugar cane; as a child I lived in NJ and every once in a while my parents would bundle my brother and I up and take a trip into NYC for some fresh sugar cane.  My favorite memory was a night time trip, sucking on the green stalk to get at the sweet juice as we whizzed through the Lincoln tunnel on our way home. 

14.  walking through my hometown in NJ - walking up and down the hills, through the neighborhoods where every house, every yard was different, not cookie-cutter. 

15.  when I get the recipe right; I collect a lot, I mean a lot, of recipes.  I don't enjoy the process of this creative pursuit so much, but when the end product looks like the picture and tastes delicious, I practically do a jig in the kitchen.